FIGHTING UPHILL BATTLE

Moving up to Class 2A this season, Meridian boys take on the challenge to stay in the District 12-2A hunt as Jackets shoot for third straight trip to playoffs

Still riding the momentum of opening the 2024-25 Texas high school boys basketball season with an impressive nine-game winning streak, the Meridian Yellowjackets hoped to carry their winning ways into District 12-2A competition.

But while making the move up from Class 1A to 2A this season, the Jackets (1-2 in district, 13-3 overall) quickly found out the hard way how the road to their third straight trip to the postseason will be tougher as they battle Crawford (2-0, 10-5), Waco Rapoport (2-0, 10-3), Bosqueville (1-1, 15-3), Rio Vista (1-2, 9-10), Itasca (1-2, 15-7) and Valley Mills (0-3, 1-14) in District 12-2A this season.

Deciding to skip the holiday tournament circuit this season, the Jackets came out of a 10-day layoff from playing games to take on the district co-leading Crawford Pirates on the road last Tuesday, never getting their offensive on track in a convincing 55-32 loss. Meridian lost its district opener at home against Bosqueville, 35-31, in the defensive struggle Dec. 20

“I have had at least one kid get hurt during Christmas Tournaments the last two years,” Meridian boys basketball head coach Grant Schur said. “And since we have already started district, I didn’t feel like the risk was worth the reward this year.

“But I learned a hard lesson in Crawford. We got three good practices in instead of a tournament, but it hurt us some scheme-wise because we aren’t running our offense and defense correctly, and you don’t have the practice time to fix it.”

While the Jackets shot 18.5 percent from the field, Crawford jumped out to a commanding 23-6 lead in the first quarter and never looked back. Sophomore Josh Nunez led Meridian with 17 points and 10 rebounds, while sophomore Guillermo Ortiz dished out two assists and grabbed four steals.

“Crawford is a good team that is extremely well coached,” Schur said. “Unfortunately for us, we just had a bad game shooting. You can’t have off games in our district, and we’ve had our two worst shooting performances in our first two district games. We had a lot of really good looks, they just didn’t fall.

“I thought our effort was there and did things well enough to win the game, but we struggled to finish possessions. Like I said, in this district, you can’t afford to have bad games.”

Flipping the script against Itasca last Friday, the Jackets shot 40.4 percent from the field on their way to their first district win of the season, running away with a 52-42 victory over the Wampus Cats. Led by Nunez with 17 points and 11 rebounds, Meridian overcame an early deficit to outscore Itasca, 35-22, in the second half. Senior Alex Rodriguez tossed in 16 points and pulled down 10 rebounds as Ortiz led the Jackets with six assists and four steals while tossing in 11 points.

“Against Itasca we looked a lot more focused offensively and more in sync with each other,” Schur said. “The effort defensively in our two district losses has been there, and it was again against Itasca. Thankfully, we had the offense to go along with it.”

With their first district win under their belts, the Jackets will play three straight games at home, hosting Waco Rapoport at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday before Rio Vista comes to Yellowjacket Gymnasium at 7:15 p.m. Friday. Meridian will wrap up the first round out district by playing host to Bosque County arch-rival Valley Mills at 7:15 p.m. next Tuesday, Jan. 14.

“Itasca has been one of the better teams in the area and region the last few years, so that was a really big win for us,” Schur said. “I jokingly told them between the third and fourth quarter that the good news is we’ve already scored more points in three quarters than we have in either of the previous two games. With three games left in the first round of district, we need to build on that momentum.”